The Rise Of An Angolan Billionaire: A Profile

Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola's former president, was once Africa's richest woman and is now an Angolan billionaire living in Dubai and London.

Isabel dos Santos, Angola's former richest woman

Isabel dos Santos, born in Baku, Azerbaijan, is the eldest child of Angola's former longtime president, José Eduardo dos Santos. She is a businesswoman and was once considered the richest woman in Africa, with a net worth exceeding US$2 billion.

Dos Santos's rise in the business world began with her first investment in a beach bar in Angola. From there, she expanded her empire to include stakes in Angola's strategic industries, such as banking, cement, diamonds, and telecommunications. She also made significant investments in Portuguese companies, adding international credibility to her business ventures. However, her wealth has been the subject of scrutiny, with allegations of corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering.

In 2016, Dos Santos was appointed chair of Sonangol, the Angolan state oil company. However, she was dismissed from this position in 2017 by the new president, João Lourenço, who initiated an anti-corruption campaign. Since then, Dos Santos has been facing legal battles and investigations into her business dealings. Her assets have been frozen in multiple countries, including Angola, Portugal, and the Netherlands, and she has been barred from entering the United States due to corruption allegations.

Dos Santos has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has claimed that the allegations against her are politically motivated. She has assumed the United Arab Emirates as her official country of residence and is reported to split her time between Dubai and London. Despite the legal troubles, Dos Santos is still considered a powerful and influential figure, with a significant impact on Angola's economy and business landscape.

Dos Santos' father, Angola's former president

José Eduardo dos Santos, the father of Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, was an Angolan politician and military officer who served as the president of Angola from 1979 to 2017. Born in 1942 in Luanda, Angola, dos Santos joined the anti-colonial movement MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, or Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) while in school. He went on to study petroleum engineering and radar communications in the Soviet Union before returning to Angola in 1970, where he served in the MPLA's guerrilla force.

Dos Santos was a frequent representative of the MPLA at international forums and was elected to the executive committee of the movement's political bureau. In 1975, Angola gained independence from Portugal, and dos Santos became the country's first prime minister. He later served as planning minister before being elected president of the MPLA and, subsequently, president of Angola following the death of Agostinho Neto in 1979.

As president, dos Santos attempted to improve relations with the West and attracted significant foreign investment to Angola's economy. He presided over the development of Angola's oil sector, making the country Africa's second-largest oil producer. However, dos Santos's rule was also marked by a prolonged civil war against Western-backed UNITA rebels, which lasted nearly three decades. In the early 1990s, he abandoned Marxism-Leninism and agreed to introduce a multi-party system. After signing a peace agreement with UNITA in 1991, dos Santos was elected president in the 1992 Angolan general election. However, UNITA resumed the fighting, which continued until the death of their leader, Jonas Savimbi, in 2002.

Dos Santos's administration was criticised for becoming increasingly authoritarian and for rampant corruption. He was accused of creating one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa, using his position to enrich himself, his family, and close associates while the majority of Angolans remained in poverty. Despite this, he received praise and recognition for his commitment to anti-colonialism and the promotion of peace negotiations.

In 2016, dos Santos announced his plan to retire from politics, and in 2017, he stepped down as president of Angola, succeeded by João Lourenço. Dos Santos retained power and influence by remaining head of the MPLA until September 2018, when he was also succeeded by Lourenço. Dos Santos passed away in 2022 at the age of 79.

Dos Santos' husband, Sindika Dokolo

Sindika Dokolo, the husband of Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, was a Congolese businessman and art collector. Dokolo was born to a millionaire from Kinshasa and his Danish wife. He was influential in the art world and was passionate about African art for Africans, owning a large collection of contemporary works from the continent.

Dokolo was also active in politics in the Democratic Republic of Congo, founding the "Congolese Stand Up" movement in 2017, which opposed a third term for then-President Joseph Kabila. Kabila stepped down in 2019 after 18 turbulent years in power.

Dokolo and dos Santos met while both were students at King's College in London and got married in 2002. They had three children together. In 2012, to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary, the couple hosted a three-day celebration in Angola, flying in friends and relatives from as far away as Brazil and Germany.

In October 2020, Dokolo died in a diving accident in Dubai at the age of 48. He had years of diving experience and always spoke passionately about it, according to his friend and colleague Cedric Mala. Mala said that the last diving outing was fatal and that doctors tried to resuscitate Dokolo without success.

Both Dokolo and dos Santos faced corruption charges in Angola, including allegations that they steered $1 billion in state funds to companies in which they held stakes during dos Santos's father's presidency. Their accounts were seized by Angolan authorities in late 2019, and they were charged with embezzlement and money laundering by the Attorney General of Angola in January 2020. Both Dokolo and dos Santos denied any wrongdoing.

Angola's new president, João Lourenço

João Lourenço is an Angolan politician who has served as the 3rd president of Angola since 26 September 2017. He was born in 1954 and grew up in a politically engaged family of ten children. His father, a doctor and nationalist, served three years in prison for illegal political activity during Portuguese colonial rule.

Lourenço's early education was in Portuguese, and he later studied at the Industrial Institute of Luanda. He participated in the liberation struggle in Ponta Negra in 1974, joining the first group of MPLA soldiers to enter Angolan territory after the fall of the Portuguese colonial regime. He fought in the Angolan War of Independence and the Angolan Civil War, and received military training in the Soviet Union, where he also completed a master's degree in Historical Sciences.

Lourenço's political career began within the MPLA, the ruling party, where he served in various roles including Secretary-General from 1998 to 2003. He was appointed Governor of Moxico Province in 1984 and rose through the ranks of the party, serving in several other provincial roles. He was Minister of Defence from 2014 to 2017 before being designated as the party's top candidate in the 2017 legislative election.

Lourenço became President of Angola on 23 August 2017 and was sworn into office on 26 September, succeeding José Eduardo dos Santos, who had been in power for 38 years. Lourenço's presidency has been marked by a commitment to economic diplomacy, with a focus on strengthening bilateral cooperation with the United States. He has also been praised for his efforts in vaccinating the Angolan population during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of domestic policy, Lourenço has attempted to cast himself as a beacon of change, promising to move away from the authoritarianism and opaque financial management of his predecessor. He has embraced a more open style of governance, granting interviews, communicating on social media, allowing demonstrations, and taking into account the views of civil society groups. He has also legalised Angola's first LGBT collective and replaced colonial-era laws banning homosexual acts.

João Lourenço's early popularity, however, has been challenged by an economic crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With general elections approaching in 2022, he faces the difficult task of preventing the situation from spinning out of control.

Dos Santos' brother, Jose Filomeno dos Santos

José Filomeno dos Santos, also known as Zenu, is the son of Angola's former president, José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country from 1979 to 2017. Born on 9 January 1978, José Filomeno dos Santos was appointed to the board of the Fundo Soberano de Angola (FSDEA), Angola's sovereign wealth fund, in 2012. In June 2013, he became the Chairman of the fund, succeeding Armando Manuel.

However, following the election of President João Lourenço, dos Santos was dismissed from his position. This move revealed a political power struggle in a country undergoing a transitional phase. In 2018, dos Santos was arrested on charges of authorising a transfer of $500 million to a British bank, among other accusations of criminal organisation, illegal enrichment, money laundering, and corruption. The transfer was part of negotiations for a $30 billion concessional lending facility for Angola, and the funds were returned to the country's central bank.

Dos Santos was released in March 2019 but later appeared before the Supreme Court of Angola in December 2019, along with three co-defendants: Valter Filipe da Silva, the former governor of the National Bank of Angola; Jorge Gaudens Pontes Sebastião, a businessman and childhood friend of the former president's son; and António Samália Bule, the director of the BNA. On 14 August 2020, the Supreme Court sentenced dos Santos to five years in prison for fraud, money laundering, trading in influence, falsification, and criminal association.

In April 2024, however, the Constitutional Court overturned the Supreme Court's decision, deeming it "unconstitutional" as certain elements of the defence were not considered by the judges. Dos Santos' case and conviction are significant in Angola's efforts to combat corruption and marked the first time a member of the former presidential family was prosecuted.

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